Trying to make up for the lost profit, Taskmaster returned to mercenary assignments and accepted [[Bain, Sunset|Sunset Bain]]’s commission to sabotage a semiconductor being built by Tony Stark. Taskmaster completed the assignment, but when Bain tried to have him killed, he tricked Triads gangs into attacking her, ultimately harming her organization enough that she finally called off her hit. During this time he became involved with [[Brandenberg, Sandi|Sandi Brandenberg]], but eventually broke it off; while they remained friends, he found it difficult to give her up. When Deadpool employed Sandi as a secretary, she brought Taskmaster in to aid him against the Black Swan. Taskmaster helped set Deadpool on the path to facing the Black Swan, and he also found time to execute Sandi’s then-boyfriend when he learned he had beaten her. When Deadpool seemingly died in an explosion battling the Black Swan, Sandi believed the amnesiac [[Agent X (Nijo)|Agent X (Alex Hayden)]] was Deadpool, and Taskmaster trained him on Sandi’s behalf, then aided Agent X and [[Outlaw (Inez Temple)]] when the [[Four Winds]] crime family clashed over Agency X’s property. Discovering Agent X was an amalgam of Black Swan's agent Nijo, Deadpool, and Black Swan, they arranged to restore themselves to normal, but when the Black Swan tried to double-cross them, Taskmaster, Outlaw, Sandi and the Eastern Wind helped Deadpool and Agent X defeat Black Swan.

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Trying to make up for the lost profit, Taskmaster returned to mercenary assignments and accepted [[Bain, Sunset|Sunset Bain]]’s commission to sabotage a semiconductor being built by Tony Stark. Taskmaster completed the assignment, but when Bain tried to have him killed, he tricked Triads gangs into attacking her, ultimately harming her organization enough that she finally called off her hit. During this time he became involved with [[Brandenberg, Sandi|Sandi Brandenberg]], but eventually broke it off; while they remained friends, he found it difficult to give her up. When Deadpool employed Sandi as a secretary, she brought Taskmaster in to aid him against the Black Swan. Taskmaster helped set Deadpool on the path to facing the Black Swan, and he also found time to execute Sandi’s then-boyfriend when he learned he had beaten her. When Deadpool seemingly died in an explosion battling the Black Swan, Sandi believed the amnesiac [[Agent X (Nijo)|Agent X (Alex Hayden)]] was Deadpool, and Taskmaster trained him on Sandi’s behalf, then aided Agent X and [[Outlaw (Inez Temple)]] when the [[Four Winds (Cartel)|Four Winds]] crime family clashed over Agency X’s property. Discovering Agent X was an amalgam of Black Swan's agent Nijo, Deadpool, and Black Swan, they arranged to restore themselves to normal, but when the Black Swan tried to double-cross them, Taskmaster, Outlaw, Sandi and the Eastern Wind helped Deadpool and Agent X defeat Black Swan.

Taskmaster has no known superhuman powers. However, with the help of the Albino, Taskmaster briefly had the ability to mimic other peoples powers by studying them. This power ended up only being temporary due to the process being interrupted by Hawkeye, Firestar, and Justice.

Abilities

Taskmaster possesses photographic reflexes, which enables him to watch another person’s physical movements and duplicate them without practice, no matter how complex. This ability is only limited by the fact that he does not possess superhuman strength or other superhuman attributes.

Taskmaster has made extensive use of video tapes and movies to study the movements of superhuman adventurers, as well as athletes, marksmen, stunt performers, and soldiers. Thus he has gained a wide range of combat and acrobatic skills. These skills include, but are not limited to, all present day and many historical martial arts, boxing, wrestling, swordsmanship, archery, marksmanship, gymnastics, aerial acrobatics and sleight of hand.

Recently it has been discovered that Taskmaster also possesses photographic memory and voice impersonation.

Weapons

Taskmaster makes use of a variety of weapons. He frequently employs a throwing shield like Captain America, a multipurpose billy club like Daredevil, a bow which uses a variety of trick arrows like Hawkeye, a sword like Black Knight, and web-shooters like Spider-Man. None of the copies are as high quality as the originals.

Paraphernalia

Taskmaster stole a generator from S.H.I.E.L.D. that can create shapes out of energy. Taskmaster uses this device to mimic Captain America’s shield, Spider-Man’s web-shooters and Wolverine’s claws. The generator is used primarily for mercenary missions along with a pair of semi-automatic handguns and a katana.
Taskmaster uses an image-inducer, with it he can change his physical appearance to anyone he wishes.

A prodigious savant of skills with mnemonic talents psychiatrists called “Photographic Reflexes,” Taskmaster has used his talent to become the Marvel Universe's premier trainer for the criminal world and government.

Contents

Origin

The man who would become the Taskmaster was born a prodigious savant of mnemonic talents. [1] He discovered his unusual abilities in childhood when, after watching a cowboy television program, he found he could duplicate the rope tricks he had seen the actors perform. Growing to understand his ability, he saw a man perform a difficult backwards leap from a diving board; he duplicated the dive, but nearly drowned because he didn’t know how to swim. Afterwards, his mother called in psychiatrists who studied his ability, terming it “photographic reflexes.” He employed his talent several times during his youth for professional gain, most notably when he became a star quarterback of his high school football team after watching one pro football game. After graduating high school he contemplated becoming a crimefighter, but decided crime would be more lucrative.

Solomon Institute for the Criminally Insane

He then began a program of observing the fighting techniques of various super heroes and their techniques through archival television news broadcasts to expand his combat repertoire. Initially committing several grand larcenies, he decided it was smarter to avoid risking direct confrontation with law enforcers, and used his stolen capital to establish himself as a combat trainer for aspiring professional criminals, specializing in producing henchmen for super villains and criminal organizations around the world. Designing a costume, he took the moniker “Taskmaster”; one unidentified early graduate of his criminal academy would become espionage legend Spymaster. [2] Taskmaster set up the Solomon Institute for the Criminally Insane as a front for one of his training academies, but its administrator Dr. Pernell Solomon developed heart problems and had Taskmaster’s science staff grow him a clone, Selbe, to harvest for a replacement organ; Selbe escaped and ran to the Avengers, who exposed the operation with the aid of their ally Ant-Man (Scott Lang). Taskmaster single-handedly held his own against both Captain America (Steve Rogers) and Iron Man in combat; while tempted to test himself against all the Avengers, he realized that he would not be able to run his business from jail and fled after the unfamiliar abilities of obscure robotic Avengers associate Jocasta threw him off balance. [3]

Early Adventures

Along with skull-crushing Canadian mercenary Tyrell Farsa and telepathic mind-altering assassin Black Swan, Taskmaster was hired to kill a militant group by an unrevealed country trying to maintain control of an airstrip. Upon completion of the mission, Farsa disrespected the cultured Black Swan by using his silk handkerchief, and Taskmaster assisted Farsa when the Black Swan attacked, but Black Swan defeated them both. [4] Taskmaster briefly joined the criminal Frightful Four with Wizard (born Bentley Wittman), Deadpool (“Wade Wilson”) and Constrictor to battle the Fantastic Four, but when Deadpool went after Franklin Richards, Franklin proved to be more trouble than planned. When the Fantastic Four soon arrived home and Taskmaster, Wizard, and Constrictor left Deadpool to face the Fantastic Four alone, and this Frightful Four grouping disbanded soon after. [5]

Under the guise of John Smith, the Red Skull manipulated Douglas Rockwell, head of CSA (Commission on Superhuman Activities), into reducing Taskmaster’s sentence in return for training John Walker (later USAgent) as the next Captain America to disgrace the image of Captain America. [10] After completing this assignment, the Red Skull arranged for the Taskmaster’s escape so he could resume his operations. The Skull funded Taskmaster’s activities, and Taskmaster tutored multiple students in Captain America’s fighting style so that the Red Skull could kill them in his own training exercises in order to get his newly cloned body of Captain America in physical fighting shape for a confrontation with the Captain (Captain America, Steve Rogers) and Captain America (U.S. Agent, John Walker). Later, Taskmaster set up a new academy at Brooklyn, New York mausoleum where he battled Spider-Man, who believed Taskmaster had kidnapped his wife, Mary Jane Watson-Parker; using a magnesium flare, Taskmaster escaped both capture and Spider-Man’s wrath.[11] When the Spymaster was believed slain, unscrupulous industrialist Justin Hammer hired Taskmaster to train a replacement. Taskmaster’s lethal elimination tests whittled the candidates down to one winner, Nathan Lemon. Taskmaster charged the new Spymaster to retrieve the golden angel ornament from atop of the Christmas tree at Stark Enterprises as a field test in order to graduate before sending him to Justin Hammer. Iron Man decided to let Spymaster walk away with the prize instead of endangering the lives of children in the area. [12]

When the amnesiac Earth-93060 (“Ultraforce”) heroine Siren (Jennifer Pearson) was teleported into one of the academies, Taskmaster gave her an audition to join and eventually developed a relationship with her. Taskmaster also discovered that Diamondback, who had joined under the ruse that she desired more training, had double-crossed him by planting explosives around the academy. When the young mutant Jolt (Kyi), who desired to join Taskmaster’s academy, accidentally triggered one of the explosive devices, Taskmaster had Jolt open a portal large enough for Siren, Jolt and himself to escape. During the journey through the portal, Siren was sent back to her own dimension, Jolt teleported to an unrevealed location, and Taskmaster was pulled forward in time by a dimension-hopping madman as one of many criminals pitted against the Avengers and a distant cosmos’ heroes before being returned to his own time.

Agency X

Trying to make up for the lost profit, Taskmaster returned to mercenary assignments and accepted Sunset Bain’s commission to sabotage a semiconductor being built by Tony Stark. Taskmaster completed the assignment, but when Bain tried to have him killed, he tricked Triads gangs into attacking her, ultimately harming her organization enough that she finally called off her hit. During this time he became involved with Sandi Brandenberg, but eventually broke it off; while they remained friends, he found it difficult to give her up. When Deadpool employed Sandi as a secretary, she brought Taskmaster in to aid him against the Black Swan. Taskmaster helped set Deadpool on the path to facing the Black Swan, and he also found time to execute Sandi’s then-boyfriend when he learned he had beaten her. When Deadpool seemingly died in an explosion battling the Black Swan, Sandi believed the amnesiac Agent X (Alex Hayden) was Deadpool, and Taskmaster trained him on Sandi’s behalf, then aided Agent X and Outlaw (Inez Temple) when the Four Winds crime family clashed over Agency X’s property. Discovering Agent X was an amalgam of Black Swan's agent Nijo, Deadpool, and Black Swan, they arranged to restore themselves to normal, but when the Black Swan tried to double-cross them, Taskmaster, Outlaw, Sandi and the Eastern Wind helped Deadpool and Agent X defeat Black Swan.

Civil War

The Committee, a cartel of financiers ostensibly dedicated to reviving the US economy through illegal activities, hired Taskmaster to assassinate vigilante Moon Knight (Marc Spector), who had been instrumental in defeating them in the past, after their agent the Profile determined that Moon Knight was without friends or determination. Taskmaster found that this was not the case, as Moon Knight’s friends came to aid him, and he tried to get out of his Committee deal, but Moon Knight pursued him to the Committee’s base and defeated him in battle. [15]

Arrested and imprisoned under unrevealed circumstances, Taskmaster was recruited for government service by the CSA during the “Civil War” between US super heroes following passage of the Superhuman Registration Act (SHRA). Assigned to the Thunderbolts, Taskmaster joined other superhuman criminals in attacking Captain America’s anti-SHRA forces. Following Cap’s surrender, Taskmaster was re-arrested, but before being transferred to the Negative Zone prison 42 he was quickly released by Deadpool, who had hoped to re-establish his reputation by defeating Taskmaster in a public display of combat. [16]

After the Skrull invasion, the Initiative fell under the control of corrupt, unstable tycoon Norman Osborn; he restructured it, assigned Taskmaster to the Shadow Initiative along with Bengal, Constructor, Komodo and Mutant Zero, and sent them to Madripoor to apprehend Initiative defector Hardball (Roger Brokeridge), who had joined Hydra. Completing the mission, the Shadow Initiative returned home to find Osborn replacing Camp Hammond with his new Camp HAMMER. Osborn placed Taskmaster and supernatural crime boss the Hood (Parker Robbins) in charge of the Initiative and began welcoming many active super-criminals into the organization. These new recruits were supposedly reformed, but Osborn would allow them to continue their criminal careers in secret as long as they posed as heroes in public, so Taskmaster and Hood trained many of these criminals in how to fake heroic behavior. Meanwhile, Taskmaster secretly helped Deadpool battle Osborn’s Thunderbolts as payback for Deadpool previously having helped Taskmaster escape prison.